Candidates See Education Post as Pulpit for Reform

The job has an impressive title--state superintendent of public instruction--but little real power to shape California’s educational landscape.

When it comes to setting policy and doling out money, the state schools chief takes a back seat to the Legislature, the governor, the Cabinet-level education secretary and the State Board of Education.

Even so, four candidates are vying for the nonpartisan post that they believe offers the perfect bully pulpit from which to weigh in on school reforms.

The contest feature two legislators forced out of their jobs by term limits, an Anaheim school board president and a Los Angeles political consultant.

State Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), is viewed by many as the candidate to beat. The senator, whose legislation led to the popular class size reduction program in the primary grades, enjoys huge financial backing from the state’s major teachers unions.

A Field poll released Thursday showed O’Connell leading the other candidates, with 18%, although nearly two-thirds of voters were still undecided. Katherine Smith, president of the Anaheim Union High School District’s board, ran second in the poll with 12%, and Assemblywoman Lynne Leach (R-Walnut Creek,) was third with 9%.

Joseph Taylor, a Los Angeles political consultant, is the fourth candidate and was not listed in the poll.

If none wins a majority Tuesday, the two top vote-getters will face each other in a November runoff.

The eventual winner will replace Supt. Delaine Eastin, who must leave because of her own two-term limit.

As head of the California Department of Education, the superintendent oversees dozens of programs worth billions of dollars, such as student testing and the school accountability system.

The authority to establish those programs, however, lies outside the department.

So the candidates acknowledge that they must forge close relationships with the governor and legislators, who together control spending, and members of the state education board, who set policies.

“The only power the job has is to sway ideas,” Smith said.

Leach, who is vice chairwoman of the Assembly Education Committee, sees the superintendent as a “watchdog” and a “loving critic” working behind the scenes to move reforms along.

The race has been largely overshadowed statewide by other contests, including the campaigns for governor.

O’Connell, who has raised about $3.5 million, is the only candidate for the superintendency advertising on television. His commercials stress his role in reducing the size of classes in kindergarten through third grade and say the popular initiative should be expanded to every grade.

O’Connell, 50, said he also wrote legislation that created the state’s new high school exit exam and another bill that increased salaries of beginning teachers.

The former high school teacher said his nearly two decades in the Legislature make him the strongest candidate to work within the state’s elaborate education bureaucracy. “I firmly believe in team building,” he said.

But O’Connell has drawn criticism for his close ties to the state’s teachers unions, which have contributed about $250,000 to his campaign.

He has also received $250,000 from the president of the State Board of Education, Reed Hastings, raising questions from opponents about O’Connell’s independence from Hastings, who was appointed by Gov. Gray Davis.

Leach said O’Connell “is totally dependent on the unions and the other educational bureaucracies. They are not going to give Jack O’Connell any breathing room.”

He defended the contributions, calling Leach’s comments “totally misguided and inaccurate.”

Leach casts herself as an agent of change in a state that she says has received little in return for its increased spending on education. She wants teachers and schools to have a greater say in reforms handed down by Sacramento, and would like to review the state’s testing and accountability systems to make sure they are not overwhelming local schools.

Like O’Connell, Leach, 62, advocates better pay for teachers.

“I don’t know how many more kids we can throw away unless we have some major changes,” said Leach, who has raised about $350,000 for her campaign.

O’Connell has criticized Leach for her connection to voucher advocates. Leach’s biggest campaign contributor, industrialist William Hume, who has given her $100,000, has backed candidates who favor publicly funded vouchers to pay tuition at private schools. Leach said she opposes such vouchers.

Smith depicts herself as a Sacramento outsider who can restore civility to schools. She touts her successful effort to introduce a moment of silence each morning in Anaheim’s secondary schools so students can collect their thoughts. Smith, 61, also has sought to instill more respect in the schools by seeking to have students stand when adults enter their classrooms.

She has raised only $14,000, lending herself $5,000 of the funds. Still, she said she brings fresh ideas to a job that needs new blood. O’Connell and Leach “are termed-out legislators circling around for another job,” she said. “I am a citizen committed to change.”

Taylor, 54, has raised less than $1,000.

He said he is running a grass-roots campaign and hopes as superintendent to make kindergarten mandatory and offer financial incentives for teachers to work in low-performing schools.